Bernie Robbins Completes Handover to Employees

By Rob Bates | May 02, 2024

Bernie Robbins Jewelers now belongs to five longtime employees—thanks to an unconventional exit strategy that its former owner, Harvey Rovinsky, devised to the keep the two-store chain going and reward the workers who had served it for decades.

“I figured I’d do something for these people who have worked with us for 30 years,” he said in November. “We’re saying to them: ‘Here it is. Take it and run with it.’”

Nearly six months later, Rovinsky admits the process took longer than expected.

“I believed the handover would be extremely simple, and I was extremely naive,” he tells JCK. “You can have five people who love each other, and then you get lawyers involved and the whole world changes. To everyone’s credit, we got through it.”

But now Rovinsky says he and wife Madalyn are ready to “ride into the sunset,” though he will remain with the store as an advisor, “until they get sick of me.”

The decision to hand over the Somers Pt., N.J.–based chain to its workers—free, without any debt—received tons of press coverage, as Rovinsky’s generous gesture was widely hailed.

“This story went out everywhere and it allowed us to do enough business that we can pay off all our debt and give this to the new owners debt-free,” says Rovinsky. “I was surprised at the magnitude of it.”

The story received so much attention, that, when Rovinsky stayed at his regular New York City hotel, “a bellman came up to me and congratulated me on doing such a nice thing.”

The store will now be headed by Sandra Moran, co-chair and jewelry buyer; Andy Lazar, managing partner and watch buyer; Stephen Berman, managing partner and jeweler; Gen Flaxman, managing partner and experience specialist; and Steve Jaffe, co-chair and diamond buyer.

Going forward, the two Bernie Robbins stores will install a shop-in-shop for Doxa, the Swiss watch brand’s first in an independent jeweler.

“For Doxa to do that shows the confidence they have in this new team,” says Rovinsky.